When It All Falls Down
by TheGeekNextDoor
Summary: It's been 1 yr since IM2. Tony and Pepper are in a "steady relationship". They are both on top of their game and it seems as if nothing can go wrong. But everything that goes up must come down...  Rated T for safety  **SPOILERS FOR IM2**
1. We're Both Different Now

_**Well guys, I'm ba—ck! And glad to be! This is my first Ironman story and I've had the idea in my head for a while. I was watching Iron Man 2 for the gzillionth time the other night and decided to finally start this. Hope you like it!**_

_**DISCLAIMER: I unfortunately don't own Iron Man, any of it's characters, or Robert Downey Jr. :( **_

_**But I will have some original characters come in during later chapters :) **_

…**Chapter 1…**

**Pepper's P.O.V.**

I sat in the waiting room pacing the floor.

Two hours, that's how long he's been in there.

I want to know what they're doing, I want to know how he's doing, I want to be holding his hand and helping him… But I can't.

"Pepper, I know this is hard for you but you need to calm down. Sit down, breathe, he's going to be okay," Rhodey said trying to calm me down.

It was only the two of us in the waiting room, it was somewhere in the early morning hours.

"I can't, I need to see him, I need to know how he's doing. It's been two hours and they haven't said anything," I said still pacing.

"The doctors are good here Pepper. They're going to do whatever they can to help him."

"But what if they can't? What if he's too hurt this time? What if—"

Rhodey stood up and came to my side stopping me, putting his hands on my shoulders, "You need to be strong, we both know that Tony is strong but he needs you to be stronger. If anything were to happen to you he'd being doing the same thing. It's out of our hands now, we can just hope he comes out of it."

I was silent for a moment, I then looked at the swinging doors, knowing that Tony, my Tony was somewhere back there, "I can't lose him," I said quietly, "I can't lose him Rhodey, I can't—" I broke down crying as Rhodey hugged me close.

A doctor finally emerged from the doors, "Mrs. Stark," the doctor said approaching us.

I wiped me tears away trying to calm down, Rhodey and I waited for what seemed like forever for the doctor to speak and tell us the verdict.

I held Rhodey's hand tightly in mine, "How is he?" I said quietly, surprised I could even say that much.

"Mr. Starks injuries were extensive. With the amount of burns and lose of blood we were surprised he made it as long as he did. Especially with her heart condition and reactor," the doctor said.

"Made it as long as he did?" Rhodey asked, knowing I couldn't speak.

"Yes… I'm sorry Mrs. Stark but unfortunately we couldn't save him—"

I shot up away, breathing heavily and drenched with sweat. I looked around expecting to be in the living room, but found myself in the bedroom. It was just a nightmare, not real, I repeated to myself multiple times in my head. My breathing began returning back to normal.

Tony had been on a mission last night so I stayed up late watching T.V. since I couldn't sleep. I'd passed out on the couch watching one of those cheesy Lifetime movies late the night before. And then I realized it, Tony must have got home early this morning, or late last night, found me on the couch and moved me up here so he wouldn't be alone. I didn't _hate_ many things, but within the last year I've hated sleeping by myself. Ever since the Expo incident I couldn't sleep soundly without Tony by my side. He was the same way about me; I guess we just realized how close we were to losing each other that night. The worst nightmares I've ever had were while he was in Afghanistan and after the Expo. Every night I was alone I had horrible nightmares about losing him, everything from car accidents and unsuccessful missions to what could have happened the night of the Expo. He had them too, but his were much worse. There have been a lot of nights where I wake up to hear him taking in his sleep, even crying once. It was the only time I'd ever seen him cry and I'll never forget it. I wrapped my arms around him and got as close as possible, he stopped within minutes. I woke up the next morning to find him looking down at me, his arms wrapped around me tightly. He told me he'd had a nightmare about losing me and that we'd had a daughter and she was hurt too. I never told him that I say him crying, I simply held him tighter, told him I wasn't going anywhere, and that I loved him.

Not many people saw that side of Tony, the sensitive, vulnerable, never let me go side. And not many people I think ever will.

I smile reaching over to his side of the bed to find him gone, another big surprise.

I smiled, _probably in the shop already_, I thought.

I stretch sitting up "Jarvis is Tony here?" I ask the A.I. while looking up to the ceiling.

"Good morning Ms. Potts. Mr. Stark is in his shop at the moment, would you like me to let me know you are awake?" the A.I. said.

"Thank you Jarvis, I'll go down and see him," I said getting up and heading for the door.

Thunder booms outside, I jump a little bit and smile. I love this weather. Rainy, stormy, stay inside and drink hot cocoa next to the best guy in the world if you can get him to stay still for over two seconds kind of weather.

I head for the stairs to the shop glancing out the vast windows at the beautiful morning picture outside.

Typing in my pass code I spot him working at his desk on the computer.

The door opens and I saunter over to him.

He spots me, "Morning Sleeping Beauty," he smirks as I come around his desk and sit on his lap hugging him.

"Good morning," I smile holding him tight.

"You okay?" he asks looking down at me.

"I missed you," I say bluntly as I kiss him on the cheek.

"I missed you too, oh and you missed," he smirks kissing me tenderly.

"How was the mission?" I ask.

"Oh, you mean babysitting for Fury and his super boy scouts. Just smashing," he says sarcastically.

"Don't worry he's going to give you a real mission yet."

"I'm starting to wonder. It's been a year now and all he ever has me do is busy work. He sends me to the other side of the country so they don't have deal with the fact that they need me. Like last month when he had me go to New York to see General Ross, why couldn't _Wonderboy_ do that? His excuse, that I knew General Ross and Steve didn't. And I'm dead serious, if Steve tells me what to do one more time, I'm tell him what to AND where to go—"

"Tony," I laughed lightly, stopping him before he got too worked up, "It's okay, you don't need to describe how much you dislike him to me. You're getting too worked up—."

"Worked up? It's not like my heart can't handle it," he said tapping on his arc reactor.

"But you could probably over load it or something. And we can't have that happening," I teased.

"Mr. Stark, Mr. Rhoades is entering the drive way sir," Jarvis said interrupting us.

"Thanks Jarvis," Tony said and then looked at me, "Rhodey on a Saturday?"

"At 7 in the morning? For all he knows we could be asleep," I joked standing up.

"For all he knows we could be doing other things," he smirked raising his eyebrow and pulling me back down.

"Tony!" I joked looking at me, "Get you mind out of the gutter!" I said lightly hitting his shoulder.

"My mind has been in the gutter for over twenty years Potts, I don't think it's coming out of there anything soon," he smirked.

"Good point," I tilted my head.

"And you know you like it," he said bluntly.

"We—ll," I said pretending to not like it.

"Oh come on, you think it's sexy," he winked.

"Maybe a little," I winked back as he kissed me.

_**Soooooo what do you think? I'm sorry if it's kind of a slow start but don't worry! A lot of stuff is going to happen, I've got some great ideas for this story. Hope you liked it! Please review! :D And no flames, pretty please with a cherry on top :) Thank you!**_


	2. You Know We Never Went to Venice

…**Chapter 2…**

**Pepper's P.O.V.**

We were interrupted by the door opening.

"If I a dollar for every time I've walked in on you doing that—" Rhodey joked.

"You'd be a billionaire, we know," Tony joked.

I stood up reluctantly, "Well I'll leave you too to talk," I said kissing Tony on the cheek and heading for the door.

Tony started sarcastically, "Thanks a lot Rhodey, all I got was kiss on the cheek and before you showed up I was pretty sure tha—"

"I can still hear you Tony," I laughed eyeing him.

"Oh I know you can," he joked.

I laughed leaving the boys to themselves and headed for the kitchen.

I went straight for the Hot Cocoa, almost giddily. I then sat down on the couch, Blackberry in hand, huge cup of Cocoa in the other. After a few minutes Tony came up the stairs while I was checking my email.

I looked at Tony who was standing at the top of the shop stairs staring out the windows, something wasn't right.

I sat down my Blackberry and mug beginning to get up, "You okay?" I asked.

Tony snapped out of his daze, his mood completely changing in seconds back to himself.

"Yeah," he said flashing that million-dollar smile.

"You sure? You didn't look to well a second ago…" I asked as he came over to the couch and stood next to me.

"Of course, I'm just tired. Didn't really sleep last night," he said blowing it off.

"Okay…" I said not really convinced.

"Where'd Rhodey go?" I asked looking at the stairs.

"He went out the garage," Tony said.

"What did Rhodey say?" I asked as he sat down on the couch, I followed.

His breathing wasn't even normal it was shallow, slow. He was calm…

"Nothing. He was just wondering how the mission went. I was talking to him when Fury showed up yesterday." Tony said playing it off. I let it go but knew I had to figure it out sooner or later.

I nodded and rested my head on his chest right above his reactor.

"You know we never went to Venice…" he smirked looking out the window.

"Hmm, you're right," I smiled thinking about it.

"Let's go," he said bluntly.

"When?" I asked looking up at him.

"Today, it's on the luxuries of being having a private jet, we can go whenever, wherever."

"But Tony we can't just get up and lea—" I began to protest.

"Yes, yes we can. And we are. Come on," he stood up taking me with him, "We're packing, going to the airport, and going to Venice rather you like it or not Potts," he smirked leading me up the stairs.

"I want to Tony, believe me, I rea—lly do but we can't."

He stopped on the stairs and turned around to look at me, "Why can't we?"

"Because you have you're job, rather you like it or not you are the C.E.O. and—"

"And blah, blah, blah. Pepper you're my P.A. an—"

"And my job is to remind you about yours," I laughed.

"No! Your job is to what I ask you do—"

"No, no, no. I believe it's more along the lines of—"

"As your boss I am telling you, Virginia Pepper Potts you are going to Venice with me."

"Oh don't pull the I'm your boss card! Nope I won't let you—"

Tony interrupted me by taking my face in his hands and kissing me deeply.

We broke apart seconds later, my mind was erased. _Oh he's good_… I thought to myself.

"Now I'm only going to say this one more time—"

I interrupted him, "Jarvis?" I said catching a confused look from Tony.

"Can you please make sure the Jet is ready to go in thirty minutes?"

"Of course Ms. Potts," Jarvis answered.

"But I thought Ms. Potts that—" Tony started some snarky comment but I stopped him.

"I'm sorry Mr. Stark but I have some packing to do. My millionaire boyfriend and I are going to Venice for a week," I said brushing past him, stopping at the top of the stairs, and looking back at him over my shoulder.

He stood in the same spot, trying to compute what I'd said.

"A week?" he finally said, "… Cause I heard it was something more like two, three weeks. Heck I heard they were moving there and never coming back," he said playing along.

"Very funny Stark," I said rolling my eyes and heading down the hall.

"I'm not kidding, I'm dead serious," he said sarcastically, "But why don't you go with me instead, huh? I bet I'm ten times better than that billionaire schmuck."

"You're great Stark but my guy is mysterious, charming, amazingly good looking—"

"Who is this guy?" he played along.

I stopped at the doorway and turned over my shoulder and said nonchalantly, "Oh just Iron Man." I then continued into the bedroom.

"Wait, you think Ironman is sexy?" he said completely surprised.

"I never said '_sexy_' bu—t…"

"You _do_!" he said coming up to me smiling like an idiot.

I tilted my head slightly, "A little," I said playing it off.

He then continued, "Why did I not know this? This should have been the first thing you told me, I mean seriously, this just opened a lot of doors—"

"You better stop flirting and start packing if won't to be gone in thirty minutes," I said going for the closet.

"Yes mam," he said raising his eyebrow and beginning to pack.

_**Two chapters in one day! I'll try to update as soon as possible :)**_


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